A wireless communication device that is associated with a wireless network may sometimes go into a low power state to conserve battery power. However, upon transitioning from the low power state back to the awake state, the device may need to re-synchronize its activities with the network controller that schedules communications within the network. Waiting for the next beacon frame may cause an unacceptable delay in such re-synchronizing. The network controller can reduce this delay by sending a synchronization (sync) frame to the device to enable synchronization, but an excessive amount of time may pass before this happens, unless the device requests a sync frame. Current communication protocols don't define such a request.